Nazis Flashcards
(27 cards)
Q: What was the Nazi New European Order?
A: A system of Nazi control over Europe based on racial hierarchy, economic domination, anti-communism, and imperial conquest, designed to entrench German supremacy.
Q: What ideological vision underpinned Nazi plans for Europe?
A: The belief that Europe was a racial entity, with Germans as the superior race, entitled to rule and purify the continent.
Q: How did Hitler justify the conquest of Eastern Europe?
A: Through the concept of Lebensraum (living space) — gaining land for German settlement and food production, especially in Ukraine and the Soviet Union.
Q: What did the Nazis see as the greatest ideological threat in the East?
A: Communism, which they identified as both a political and racial enemy, often linking it to Jews (Judeo-Bolshevism).
Q: What marked the beginning of Nazi territorial conquest?
: The invasion of Poland in September 1939, which was divided into German-annexed zones and the General Government.
Q: What was the Madagascar Plan?
A: A failed Nazi plan (1940) to deport European Jews to Madagascar, abandoned after the defeat in the Battle of Britain.
Q: What was the Grossraum?
A: A proposed continental economic zone under German leadership, excluding Britain and the USA, to supply Germany with all necessary resources.
Q: What was Operation Barbarossa?
A: Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, marking the beginning of the “War of Annihilation.”
Q: How did Nazi racial ideology influence their treatment of the USSR?
A: The war was seen as a racial battle between Aryans and “Asiatic” Bolsheviks, justifying the extermination of Jews, communists, and Slavs.
Q: Who were the Einsatzgruppen?
A: Nazi mobile killing units that followed the army into Soviet territory and executed Jews, communists, and partisans, killing over 1 million people by the end of 1941.
Q: What was the Final Solution?
A: The Nazi plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe, developed fully after 1941 and implemented primarily in death camps
Q: When did the first death camp open?
A: Belzec, in March 1942.
Q: What was Auschwitz-Birkenau’s role in the Holocaust?
A: It became the largest death and labour camp, responsible for the murder of over 1 million Jews and used for forced labour.
Q: Why was the Final Solution intensified after 1941?
. A: Due to the vast number of Jews now under Nazi control after the Soviet invasion and the need for a “faster” method than mass shootings.
Q: How did Nazi Germany maintain its war economy without major domestic sacrifice?
‘A: By relying on forced foreign labour. By 1944, over 8 million civilians were working inside the Reich, with millions more in occupied territories.
Q: What proportion of the German arms industry workforce was foreign labour by 1943?
A: One third.
Q: How did France contribute to the German war effort?
A: Through an agreement with Vichy France, 40–50% of French industrial output was sent to the Reich.
Q: When did German civilians begin to experience real wartime shortages?
A: Not until 1944, due to the exploitation of foreign resources and labour.
Q: What was the extent of the Nazi camp system by 1945?
A: Over 714,000 camps and subcamps across occupied Europe.
Q: What ultimately undermined the Nazi New European Order?
A: The prioritisation of racial ideology over economic rationality, the overextension of military power, and the eventual Allied military victories.
Q: What were the five key aims of the Nazi New European Order?
A: 1) Racial purification through genocide
2) Conquest of Lebensraum in the East
3) Destruction of Communism
4) Construction of a Grossraum (economic empire)
5) Total mobilisation of Europe’s resources for the Nazi war machine
Q: How did Nazi racial ideology shape policy?
A: It justified genocide, forced displacement, enslavement, and the elimination of anyone deemed racially or politically undesirable.
Q: In what ways did Nazi policy combine ideology and economic goals?
A: They used forced labour and looted resources to fuel war, but as racism took priority, even economically useful populations were exterminated.
Q: What key idea did Hitler present in Mein Kampf regarding Europe’s future?
A: Hitler called for the expansion of Germany eastward to gain Lebensraum (living space), especially in Ukraine, which he described as a future “agricultural basket” for the Reich.
